Israeli MoD responds to Iron Dome scepticism

By Jeremy Binnie

3/15/2013

The Israeli Ministry of Defence (MoD) has stated that it “strongly rejects the unsubstantiated study” expressing scepticism about the performance of the Iron Dome short-range rocket interception system.

“The baseless claims do not in any way reflect the performance of Iron Dome,” it said in the 13 March statement. “The security establishment is more than content with the system’s impressive results and will continue to acquire more Iron Dome batteries.”

The statement was a response to a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that cited three scientists who questioned the MoD’s assertion that the Iron Dome batteries had successfully intercepted more than 80% of rockets that threatened areas under their protection during Operation ‘Pillar of Defence’ in November 2012.

Largely basing their research on amateur videos showing Iron Dome interceptors being launched against rockets fired by militants in the Gaza Strip, the scientists noted that there were few signs of the secondary explosions they expected to see when a successful interception caused the detonation of the target’s warhead.